


A Cat Circumstance

by brilliantdance



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:01:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26837131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilliantdance/pseuds/brilliantdance
Summary: A dorm room wasn't the most likely of places Kazunari expected to hear meows coming from.
Relationships: Ikaruga Misumi/Miyoshi Kazunari
Comments: 12
Kudos: 88





	A Cat Circumstance

**Author's Note:**

> This is for a3tober on Twitter for the October 11th prompt, animals. Also: oh my god, what are titles. This is posted early since I won’t be at a computer on the 11th!

A dorm room wasn’t the most likely of places Kazunari expected to hear meows coming from.

It was later evening, after dinner and everything, and Kazunari was headed back to his room. He had a hand on his doorknob, about to enter, when a sound caught his attention.

 _Eh?_ That really couldn’t be what it sounded like…

It was a high pitched meowing. And it sounded close. Kazunari took a few steps to the side, realizing that the sound was coming right from Misumi’s room. Alright, maybe not so weird - he knew how much Misumi loved cats, but he hadn’t expected to hear meows from his dorm room of all places!

Curious, Kazunari rapped lightly on Misumi’s room door. It didn’t take long for the door to open up. An initial nervous look in Misumi’s eyes relaxed when he saw that it was Kazunari standing there.

“Kazu, what’s up~?” Misumi asked in a quiet voice, almost like a whisper.

Kazunari wondered for a moment if he should pretend he didn’t hear anything, but he sensed that Misumi was troubled, so he stayed where he was.

“Can I come in?” he whispered back. “I heard something meowing.”

What Kazunari could only call a sheepish expression crossed Misumi’s face, but he nodded and let Kazunari in, closing the door behind him. And just as expected, roaming around the room was a cat - it looked pretty young, couldn’t be much more than a year old, with fluffy black and white fur.

“I found him outside and he had nowhere to go~” Misumi explained as Kazunari sat down next to the cat.

Meowing, the cat walked up to Kazunari and started rubbing against his knees. Kazunari cooed, scratching it… _him,_ Misumi had said, behind the ears.

“He’s so cute!” Kazunari exclaimed, smiling as the cat meowed again. “How did you get him in your room without being caught, Sumi?”

“Mmm, nobody was around!” Misumi said, plopping down on the floor next to them. “It was easy~”

“Lucky~” Kazunari replied. “If the wrong person caught you, you’d totes get scolded!”

“Yeah,” Misumi said. “I’m glad it’s Kazu that caught me! You won’t tell, right?”

Kazunari paused. “Nope, nope, don’t worry! But, but Sumi, you know you can’t keep him right? You’ll get caught eventually… Frooch won’t be happy if he finds out!”

“Aww~,” Misumi said. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Kazunari said. “He’d be all…” Kazunari took in a deep breath, scrunching his face up into his best strict grump look before he continued. “You cannot keep this animal here. It’ll be chaotic, running amok in the dorms, and not to mention the finances it would take to raise it… the vet bills are not something we can afford right now, the budget blahblahblah…”

Laughter burst from Misumi as he looked at Kazunari gleefully. “Kazu, you sounded just like Sakyo! Amazing!”

Pleased at the praise, Kazunari grinned back. “Haha, thankies~”

After the laughter settled, a sad expression faded back onto Misumi’s face, making Kazunari’s heart clench.

“But I want to keep him… he has nobody.”

Kazunari gazed at Misumi quietly. Misumi was watching the cat with tenderness in his eyes. He didn’t know how Misumi met the cat, but it seemed like he quickly had gotten attached to him.

“What’s his name?” Kazunari asked.

“He said he didn’t have one,” Misumi said, “so I named him Oreo~”

“That name is so adorbs~!” Kazunari exclaimed, smiling as Oreo crawled onto Misumi’s lap and laid down. Kazunari scooted on the floor so he was close enough to pet him.

“Thanks~” Misumi said, looking down at the cat with something unreadable in his eyes, but it was definitely a type of sadness that Kazunari didn’t like seeing in his friend. “Oreo… he’s really scared and lonely.”

“Really?” Kazunari gently questioned. “What is he scared of?”  
  
There was a moment of silence in which Kazunari wondered if Misumi wasn’t going to answer him. But then, he did.

“He told me he doesn’t have a home and he’s scared of the world.” Misumi spoke in a tone full of sad wistfulness and other feelings he couldn’t name, but he did know that it made Kazunari’s heart literally hurt.

It must have been how Misumi had felt before Mankai took him in, before he joined the theatre. He could hear it in his voice, not just the sadness Misumi felt for the cat, but recalling the feelings that he too had experienced himself.

Kazunari found himself leaning in, his hand moving from the cat’s head to Misumi’s hand, taking it in his gently, squeezing.

Misumi turned to look at Kazunari with a small smile on his face, squeezing Kazunari’s hand back, nothing else needing to be said, Kazunari not knowing what to say, but hoping Misumi knew he was there for him anyway.

They stayed like that, staring at each other, for a moment that dragged on so long that Kazunari wasn’t sure how long it had actually been.

He broke the moment first, realizing how fast his heart had started racing.

“Okie!” Kazunari said cheerfully, giving Misumi a bright smile. “I’ll help!”

“Help…?” Misumi questioned, tilting his head slightly.

“Yup! We can’t keep Oreo, but we can find him a family, right? A family who will love him, for him to be a part of!”

 _Like Mankai company hopefully did for you,_ he thought afterward.

Misumi’s face lit up. “Really?”

“Yeah~ totes!” Kazunari said.

“Yay! Thanks, Kazu! Oreo will be really happy too!”

“I hope so,” Kazunari said. He wanted the cat to be okay obviously, but he also wanted Misumi to be happy and have no worries anymore. “By the way, what are we gonna do about feeding him?”

“...Oh,” Misumi said. “Oreo said he wasn’t hungry earlier, but he will be later?”

“Yup! Okie,” Kazunari said, “so then… since we don’t know how long it’ll take to find Oreo a home, we’ll need to feed him and…” Kazunari trailed off, thinking for a sec.

“Can we go to the pet store~?” Misumi asked.

“Not this late,” Kazunari said, “I’ll go downstairs to find something from the kitchen, I’m sure there’s something a cat can eat down there, at least for now! Sumi, find some newspapers to put down for a litter box!”

“Okay~” Misumi said. “Got it! Thanks, Kazu! Kazu is the best!”

“Ah, nah~” Kazunari said, heat spreading across his face as he awkwardly scratched his cheek. “Not at all!”

Part of him wanted to keep sitting here on the floor with Misumi, holding his hand, but he knew that he had to go do what he said he was going to do.

Before he got up, he squeezed Misumi’s hand one more time, moving onto shaky legs, his whole body feeling warm.

“Righty then, be right back!” As he turned and waved, he saw Misumi was still beaming at him as he waved back. Kazunari turned to leave the dorm, opening and closing the door behind him quickly as he stepped out. And then he took in a deep breath of air.

He needed a moment to let his heart calm down. Misumi’s smile was beautiful but totally dangerous. _Phew.  
  
_

* * *

  
The night before, he’d managed to secure some meat from the fridge, hopefully nobody would miss it. After delivering it to Misumi, he’d headed back to his own room. If he stayed with Misumi and the kitten too late, Muku would totally have wondered where he was. He knew Muku would have kept the secret for Misumi for sure, but he didn’t want his roommate to have to be stressed about keeping it from the others either.

Since Kazunari only had a couple of classes that day, he spent most of the morning at his computer, designing posters. Earlier he’d gone and taken lit pics of the cat in Misumi’s room so he could attach it to the poster. It was really, really hard to hold back on posting them on insta!

The pics he’d taken were just so instablammable, but he had to hold back. First of all, fellow theatre members followed him! And also a lot of his followers lived far away, all over the place, and if the person who took in Oreo lived close by instead, perhaps they’d let Misumi visit him. And hanging posters felt more personal in a way, especially for something like this. So he’d decided to keep the process off insta this time.

Hopefully he’d find something even more lit to post soon to make up for it!

Focusing on the posters again, Kazunari was pleased with the result. Once he and Misumi hung the posters around Veludo Way, hopefully someone would be interested in adopting Oreo!

After Kazunari was done and had a stack of posters printed at his fav print shop, he knocked on Misumi’s door again.

“Sumi, hey,” Kazunari said when Misumi opened the door. “How’s Oreo doing?”

With a smile, Misumi opened the door wider for Kazunari to see. “He’s sleeping!”

Kazunari slipped into the room, noticing that Oreo was lying down, sleeping on one of Misumi’s triangle cushions.

“Aww, so adorbs!” Kazunari stayed in place though, as much as the instinct to go cuddle the cat was, he wasn’t going to wake him!

“Yeah! Oreo likes triangles too!” Misumi looked very pleased with this, almost like a proud father. It was so adorable Kazunari almost couldn’t contain an embarrassing squeal - which he did contain, but just barely.

“Oreo has good taste,” Kazunari agreed. “Okie, okie, look, the posters are ready!”

Kazunari handed a poster over to Misumi. It contained a pic of Oreo and Kazunari’s cell number as well as many design flourishes of Kazunari’s own taste.

“Wow!” Misumi grinned at the poster. “Kazu, it’s so lit!”

Kazunari felt himself stumble in place a bit, surprised. _Oh my God._ Cute. Adorbs. Perfection-

“Hehe, thanks!” he answered through the sudden flustered shock of hearing Misumi use one of his fav slang words.

“Let’s go hang them up now!”

“Absolutely!” Kazunari took one last look at the cute sleepy cat. “We’ll definitely find a good home for you, Oreo. Just count on us!”

Oreo then lifted his head, eyeing Kazunari with a sleepy look as he let out a drawn out meow.

“He understood you, Kazu!” Misumi said. “He said he’s happy!”

“O.M.G. for real?” Kazunari excitedly glanced again at Oreo who was still watching him. He gave Oreo a grin and a thumbs up.

“Yeah~” Misumi said. “He trusts us! Okay Oreo, we’ll be back soon~”

“Yuppers!” Kazunari said, suddenly not wanting to leave Oreo. But hey, it had to be done.

He and Misumi left the dorm together, each of them carrying half of the posters and some tape.

And then, they got to work. For a while they’d split up, each going in different directions, tacking posters to walls, alleys, light poles. It was similar to handing out flyers for their plays, but it was quicker this way. They didn’t have to stand in one spot, hoping people would take them. This way they’re visible for anyone walking by.

Kazunari walked by an alleyway, catching sight of Misumi talking to someone. He walked up behind to hear the tail end of their conversation.

“I’m sorry, dear,” it was an older woman with a broom, looking sadly at Misumi. “We can’t really afford to take care of a cat right now.”

“Aww,” Misumi said. “Thanks, auntie! Can I hang up a poster here?”

“Of course you can,” her face was a warm smile. As Misumi bounded over to put up another poster, Kazunari smiled too.

It was sad that the woman Misumi asked couldn’t take Oreo, but he liked seeing how the people around Veludo Way were drawn to Misumi.

And he saw it again and again as he followed Misumi a while longer, putting up posters as Misumi talked to more of the aunties and grandmas around town that he was friendly with. It made Kazunari’s heart warm to see how they all adored him, even though it was sad that he’d had no luck finding someone interested in Oreo.

Kazunari put up one more poster on a light pole next to a park, realizing that their stack was practically empty. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since they started hanging them up, but Kazunari’s arms and legs ached.

“All gone~” Misumi showed his empty hands, looking hopefully at him.

“One more here,” Kazunari said. “Here, you can put it up, Sumi!”

“Yay, okie~!”

Misumi took the last paper and hung it up on a fence. Misumi’s back to him, lifting his arms up to the fence as the sun shone on him just right made Kazunari take out his phone and snap a quick pic.

“Now that’s all of them!” he cheered when Misumi turned around.

They stared at each other wordlessly for a moment, both wearing matching hopeful smiles. Now, hopefully someone who would give Oreo a good home will see the posters.  
  


* * *

  
A couple of days had gone by, enough time that Kazunari and Misumi had to make a stop at a pet store to buy some actual cat food, and there weren't any calls or notices about interest in Oreo.

Kazunari and Misumi both lay together, facing the ceiling in Misumi’s room. Oreo was on Misumi’s chest, purring.

The gloomy atmosphere was heavy on his chest.

“I’m sure someone will call,” Kazunari tried to be optimistic, “the right person just hasn’t walked by and seen the posters yet!”

“Yeah,” Misumi agreed. “You’re right, Kazu!”

Kazunari sat up, noticing when Oreo stirred, lifting his head at him.

With a grin, Kazunari snapped a pic of Misumi and Oreo together.

“I wish I could share this on insta, but it’s best not to~” Kazunari said. “But it’ll be a good memory for later!”

“Can I see?” Misumi asked.

“I'll LIME it to you!” Kazunari said and Misumi nodded enthusiastically.

Then it was quiet again for a while, Kazunari absentmindedly scrolling his phone while Misumi pet Oreo.

“I wonder what else we can do…” Kazunari said after a while. “I can make more flyers and hand them out like we do when we advertise for shows! Or maybe we can bring him out and have him meet people in person? Then people will see how cute he is!”

“Mmm,” Misumi said. “Or… or we can keep him?”

“I wish~” Kazunari sighed. “It’d be totes awesome to keep him ourselves… Oreo is such a cool guy… and it’d be kinda fun too being all sneaky and raising him in secret.”

“Yes!” Misumi turned his head to stare wide-eyed at Kazunari. “Can we?”

And oh, if Kazunari didn’t want to say an immediate _yes_ when Misumi was looking at him like that, with such a pleading puppy dog expression that turned his stomach into goop.

Thoughts played out in his mind of saying yes, of them raising Oreo together, secretly of course, with Kazunari having more excuses to come into Misumi’s room to see him, not that he really needed excuses since they were friends, but well, there was a point in which it might become totally way too obvious - so the cat was a good reason…

Also, also Oreo too was adorable and he loved watching Misumi with him. It would almost be like co-parenting, and if that thought didn’t cause him to blush to the tips of his ears...

He really, really wanted to say yes.

Kazunari opened his mouth.

And then his cellphone rang.  
  


* * *

  
Kazunari and Misumi watched Oreo being taken away with his new family - a very nice mother with a young son who seemed very happy to meet him.

It was bittersweet, of course. The mom and son walked away after promising to go to the pet store and get him a vet check up, doing things the right way, Misumi lowered his arm after waving goodbye.

Kazunari slung an arm around Misumi’s shoulders. “I’m really glad for Oreo,” he said, trying to keep things light, even though both of them were a bit bummed too.

“Yeah~” Misumi said, a bit sadly, but he turned to look at Kazunari and smiled. “They’re good people, I can tell~”

“I think so too~” Kazunari said. “Plus, they said you can go visit them, so that’s totally rad!”

“Yeah~” Misumi seemed a bit brighter, so Kazunari felt brighter too.

They then re-entered the dorms together, with Kazunari making a stop when they reached the lounge.

“Hey, Sumi, we should make some onigiri to celebrate finding Oreo a good home, whatcha think?”

“Onigiri, onigiri, yay~!”

Kazunari took that as a yes.

A bit later, onigiri in hand, they headed up to Misumi’s room together.

They ate silently. Misumi was always right - the onigiri did warm up the heart. He felt a bit better already. Or maybe it was mostly Misumi’s company rather than the onigiri.

As Kazunari was finishing his last bite, Misumi was getting up and walking around, looking for something.

Kazunari tilted his head, about to ask what he was doing when Misumi made a satisfied noise, lifting something off the ground and heading over to Kazunari with it.

When Misumi handed over his big Super Sankaku-kun plushie, Kazunari was a bit confused.

“Sumi… what’s this for?”

“As thanks for helping find Oreo a home!” Misumi said with a smile. “Kazu can take it!”

“Wait, wait, wait-” Kazunari said, blinking. “No, no way, this is one of your favourite triangles, Sumi! Wasn’t it a limited edition? You should keep it. You don’t need to thank me!”

“Ehh,” Misumi said, “but…”

Kazunari smiled with reassurance. “I wanted to give Oreo a home just as you did, so! I’m really happy you’d give it to me though, Sumi... “

“Hmm…” Misumi said, staring at Kazunari for a moment. The look in his eyes was different than usual, and it made Kazunari’s chest constrict suddenly. “Then can I thank you in a different way, Kazu~?”

“Eh?” Kazunari said. “Ah.” Misumi was staring right at him, so intently that Kazunari suddenly lost his words. Lost his thoughts, even. Lost his sanity if he were to go deeper, and that wasn’t even an exaggeration-

Misumi leaned in and kissed him.

Kazunari short-circuited.

The kiss was short, sweet, and Kazunari could feel Misumi smiling against his mouth. Kazunari had no time to kiss back because Misumi was quickly pulling away with a mischievous grin on his face.

“There, Kazu’s reward~ hehe~”

Misumi then got up and grabbed the last of his onigiri he hadn’t finished yet.

Kazunari stared at Misumi with complete shock, his heart racing miles and miles a minute.

_O.M.G._

As his brain processed what just happened, Kazunari felt his face burn, suddenly set alight, like someone had thrown a match at him while he was drenched in gasoline.

_O.M.G._

Covering his face with his hands, Kazunari flopped down onto his back on the floor, unable to even. Just. Unable to _anything._

He was capable of one spare thought, though…

Perhaps he should start helping Misumi with things a whole lot more often.


End file.
